Having absurdly compared the George Zimmerman self-defense against a violent attack by Trayvon Martin to the murder of Emmett Till, Oprah Winfrey has decided to call a store clerk in Switzerland racist for refusing to show Oprah a $38,000 pocketbook.

“She said, ‘No, no, no you want to see this one because that one will cost too much. You won’t be able to afford that one.’”

“She refused to get it … she said, ‘I don’t want to hurt your feelings,’ and I said, ‘Okay, thank you so much, you’re probably right I can’t afford it.’ Now why does she do that?”

Winfrey, who Forbes estimates earned $77 million between June 2012 and June 2013, said she left without making a further scene over the “Jennifer” bag, which is named for Jennifer Aniston, rather than give the clerk a commission….

“We are fuming — this person acted terribly wrong. We are sorry this happened to @oprah!,” a rep for the Swiss Tourism office tweeted Thursday.

But the shop’s owner told Reuters the flap was all a big misunderstanding caused by the clerk’s imperfect English.

“This is an absolute classic misunderstanding,” owner Trudie Goetz, who also attended Turner’s wedding, told the news agency, suggesting that her employee had been trying to give Winfrey multiple options.

Lack of understanding makes sense. Is there some evidence the shop turns away blacks, or refuses to show blacks expensive bags? Before making an accusation of racism on these facts, you need some more facts.

But between the Emmett Till comments and the Switzerland boutique, we’re all talking about Oprah for the first time in a long time… so it’s working for her.

(added)

Update: Apparently this is not the first time Oprah has been upset at not being treated as the Oprah and then claiming racism.

Comments

To tsr: Just curious here, I appreciate your sentiment, I suspect you are simply a nice person trying to live by the Golden Rule on this, but honestly, what has this woman actually done that earned your respect you say you’ve now lost? She gets paid a gazillion dollars to sit on a couch and engage in superficial talk and affix her name to vanity projects, and when she is through for the day telling us riff-raff how to live, she returns home to her empty life with her expensive possessions and servants and no children. She is an overpaid, over-praised dolt with nothing of any real value to contribute to humanity aside from the relatively meager amount of alms she deigns to provide to her designated victim groups, and then only when she is sure it will be sufficiently publicized.

but honestly, what has this woman actually done that earned your respect you say you’ve now lost?

Well, I respect how she got to that position in life, not so much what she’s done with it. But if she isn’t the epitome of the American Dream (that progressives keep insisting doesn’t exist) then what is?

I was thinking this was baloney the moment I heard about it. Agree with Kitty above as well. Publicity is most highly valued when free and serving a personal intere$t.

My not-white-daughter shops in in Paris occasionally, usually hair up and dressed down in jeans and a tee shirt, and has never been turned away anywhere, and definitely not Hermes and she has the shopping booty to prove it.

I want to know why she isn’t redistributing her $38,000 instead of selfishly spending it on triflings like pocket books and then boasting about it. It’s the attack of the “Let them eat cake” Left. How obscenely gauche and hypocritical.

Poor baby! So oppressed! Whenever I was in Geneva in the 1980s everybody was rude to me, especially the Arab guy running the pizza joint at the railway station. He was, obviously, very anti-Jewish and I should demand an apology from Switzerland.

Why couldn’t she simply reply “I think I can afford it” – in being coy with the clerk, OW had a hand in the encounter / set her up. Love and grace would have given the clerk the benefit of doubt … as it says “love covers a multitude of wrongs (sins)” and “speak the truth in love” … I don’t think Opera demonstrated love there at all – her actions jeopardize the clerk’s job, has a store and country apologizing to her … not loving at all – rather – very very self centered.

Actually, Europeans, like the French or Austrians I’ve spoken with, do not expect assimilation or equivalence for non-French and non-Austrians. You are guest, a visitor, neither French nor Austrian, either as a tourist or as a worker for a specific vocation. If I am wrong, because my experience is not extensive, somebody advise me that. I just don’t get that sense of equal opportunity expectation from Europeans for essentially non-Europeans. Is this a case of an American, of some fame, projecting their home grown expectations on other countries who do not have the same expectations?

As I said, correct me if I am wrong, I will listen. Learning is part of why I visit here.

I am from Zurich. I know that store and area of Zurich. It’s on the “rich” side of the Limmat River that runs through Zurich. She was at the very high-end store Trois Pommes. This high-end store is very exclusive and incredibly expensive. People who frequent this store are well-dressed and oozing money. This whole little area is very high-end. Watches start at about $10,000.

What the Swiss are too polite to tell you: Apparently Oprah schlepped to the store (unsure if her gal-pal Gayle King was there) in her casual clothes (for Oprah, this means a track suit and sneakers) and without the advantage of her multiple make-up artists, hair and wig stylists, and clothing consultant, barged into the store looking like Aunt Esther from “Sanford and Son”. She wanted to see a purse and was surprised it cost $38,000 (for holding lipstick, a credit card, and some Tic-Tacs? really?), so the clerk, who speaks several languages (because Oprah only speaks English and thinks that wherever she is, people should speak English) offered to show her other bags that were less expensive, saying “That is [might be] too expensive for you” (a simple way for a non-native speaker of English to say “it is expensive, but we have others to show you”. I am guessing also that the clerk (who works on commission) thought Oprah was just some dumb American and part of a tour group thinking she could scoop up a deal on a souvenir. In short, the clerk pointed Oprah to less expensive things in the store, because (thinking Oprah to be just an average tourist not knowing how expensive things were) she wanted to spare this customer the embarrassment of having to say “gee, that’s a bit out of my league” if shown really expensive things (think about it: why would someone working on a commission point someone to something cheaper?).

But of course, Oprah threw down the racism card immediately. No, Oprah, you have to remember that you might be the queen of liberal television in the US, but no one in Europe knows who you are, and frankly, no one in Europe cares. If you had entered the store dressed appropriately, spoke either German or French (the two most important national languages here) you might have been treated better. Or better still, if you had your pal Tina Turner call the store (Tina is a frequent customer) and informed them that “my good friend Oprah Winfrey will be coming by and she doesn’t speak German — can you take care of her for me?”, you might have gotten better service. Granted, if you have the cash, I wouldn’t care what you were wearing if you bought something (think of that funny scene in “Pretty Woman” when Julie Roberts’ character, with armloads of expensive things, returns to the store that had refused her service because of the way she dressed at first). But please don’t think that because you’re a nobody in Europe, and you don’t follow our conventions, that somehow we’re at fault. It’s kind of like “no shirt, no service” but on a much higher level. Elitism in Europe is based on class, not race. If you look and act like a schlub, you’ll be treated like one.

But this is suspiciously the same scenario in 2005 when Oprah was in Paris at the flagship store of Hermes in the trendy and very expensive 8th arrondissement and was denied entrance to the store. Oprah screamed racism, and it was dutifully reported as racism by CNN and the other media outlets based *solely* on what Oprah said, until they had to backtrack when the facts came out that she had showed up at the Hermes store as it was being closed and said in so many words “Do you know who I am?” but they kindly asked her to return the next day, as there was a private party being held in the store that evening. No, it’s racism according to Oprah. You have to wonder if she is trying to say “hey, I’m still relevant even though Barack Obama doesn’t return my calls now and I just made a mediocre movie about a black servant in the White House”.

Sorry, it was a Tom Ford boutique next to the Trois Pommes. In any event, the people who shop there are dressed exquisitely. Even the Russian mafia’s girlfriends know enough to get dressed up for this shopping district.

When I last traveled in Paris and other European cities, I dressed more formally than most of the people (native or tourist) that I saw around me. That seemed to win respect because I was showing respect by how I dressed. (I also got asked for directions several times.) Trying to use the local language also seemed to be respected. It used to be said that the French were offended when foreigners spoke French badly. In my experience, they seemed to appreciate the effort to used French, however imperfectly.

Thank you. You answered my questions and moderated my assertions about Europeans that I asked up-thread…I should have read through before opening my keyboard. The concept of dressing up for anything is almost a lost concept in the USA, but apparently not in Europe. That’s a good thing.

Another point, you didn’t mention, but has always worked for me when traveling in really far away places, some of them where I was shot at and shot back, to acknowledge up front that you don’t speak the local tongue(s) and humbly ask for their forbearance….and subsequently their assistance. Places I was in for extended periods over a year I tried to attain some fluency in their language, even if it was about that of an 8 year old there. I’d laugh at myself and they’d laugh too…presto, hostility gone. Arrogance never did anything for me but make enemies in places not my home, and generally served poorly even at home.

I “sent” my husband to Rome last year for his birthday, and prior to his departure I did a little research about the area and what was expected of tourists. Turns out that they don’t wear shorts around Rome, no matter how high the temps get. Husband took along a few pair anyway, but never wore them in public. He was stunned that in fact, people in Rome don’t go in public in shorts. He witnessed a bus full of (American) teens be turned away from a tour of a religious site because most were wearing shorts.

Anyway, it is obvious that Okra is doing all she can to promote her latest “movie”. Up to destroying the life of a sales clerk and the reputation of a shop. Over a purse she may have had no intention of actually buying.

And from “Pretty Woman” — when Julia Roberts’ character was kicked out of the store because she looked and dressed like the hooker she portrayed. The subsequent scene, when she returned with all the bags from the *other* stores and said “Remember me? Big mistake. Huge.” Yes, we should not judge a book by its cover, but as I said, Europeans as a rule, in stylish cities with chic shopping districts, get dressed up to go shopping.

It’s hard to believe that Oprah would not have some people with her for at least for security. This makes me wonder if the story she tells is true. Also, she has told a similar story involving a store in the past.

Zurich is entirely safe, especially the shopping district where this store is located. One of the reasons prominent people come to Zurich is because no one is going to “rush them” squealing for an autograph. Your private space is just that. Private.

So you feel that a customer who failed to tell the truth about a similar circumstance in Paris should be given carte blanche to scream “racism” just because no on recognized her in casual clothes while shopping in Zurich? Please, even the Russia mafia’s girlfriends know how to dress for shopping. And thanks to Oprah, Tina Turner (a frequent shopper in this district) now will have to face the embarrassment of being friends with the gasbag faux royalty Oprah of Chicago.

Discrimination happens all the time. A nervous young man in worn clothing buying an engagement ring will first be shown things of a more modest price, and a confident young man in smart clothing will first be shown things more expensive. Is that illegal? Or immoral? No, it’s common sense.

But so many confuse discrimination with *illegal* or *immoral* discrimination, and in this case, automatic racism. Queen Oprah should go back to Chicago. And stay there.

You seem awfully defensive especially since I’ve said nothing about racism. When was it demonstrated that Oprah wasn’t telling the truth about whatever previously occurred in Paris?
Apparently you seem to think that someone cannot experience multiple slights.

And what proof do you have that Oprah was telling the truth about what happened? Were you there? Did she call you crying about how badly she was treated?

Her TV channel OWN is a flop that is losing money. She backed a man whose wife has decided Oprah is no longer welcome, as a friend, to the White House because Oprah is, to be polite, chunky. She’s lost a lot of fans for supporting Obama and the Obama’s dumped on her. Now she’s trying to promote a movie.

Oprah showed her soul when she made claims that Paula Deen was a “friend” yet stood by while the jackals fed on Paula Deen’s bones. Maybe someone should dig into Oprah’s past and see if she ever used the word “cracka” 30 years ago when some white guy shoved a gun in her face.

Besides, what does what some Eurowennie Socialist, who works at an over priced boutique, have to do with Oprah in the U.S.?

For decades, Neiman-Marcus taught its sale personnel how to tell if someone had money. Things like how to know that the person dressed to the nines was really not able to afford that $150,000 diamond bracelet where the wrinkled up old guy with a beat up 10X Stetson and cow manure on his boots could. Neimans had that down to an absolute science.

Somehow, to me, this story just doesn’t hold water. I think if anything, Oprah was upset because the person didn’t recognize her, not because she was being treated differently because of her skin tone.

When I walked down the Avenue Montaigne in Paris, I didn’t dare go into the luxury boutiques even though I’m definitely white and I was wearing a reasonably nice dress. I imagined that the store personnel would still be able to recognize me as someone who didn’t have the money to buy what they were selling. (Besides, I wasn’t in Paris to shop anyway.)

Oprah has a mouth. She very easily could have told the clerk that she could afford it. I’m sure she has a black American Express Card. She could have whipped that out, but she would rather cry racism, because she wasn’t bowed down to.

No. I said earlier that I don’t believe this happened the way described by Ms Winfrey. As ZurichMike has said, why would a sales person likely on a commission basis not want to show and sell the highest priced items.

The Swiss are not ignorant people and my guess is Oprah was behaving arroagantly and piggish and therefore might have been treated less well that had she been the Oprah folks see on television. It is that persona that is “famous” not the fat chick in sweats pushing herself around in exclusive stores.

Oprah is a true stealth racist, whose true colors are coming out because of Obama, who has emboldened her to act out her true feelings, and speak out in public what she has hid for decades- racist bigot tendencies. Why has she hid them, because the attraction for money and fame was greater than her social racist ideology, until recently. Now that she has what she wants, she hasn’t the fear of coming out she used to have, which could have derailed her fortune and fame.

Something I just must say: when racism has to be contrived by people who no longer have any sense of it, or those who never have had any sense of it, it is self destructive. Real racism exists, but not where Hollywood and our “celebrity class” attempt to insist it exists. Acting out like Oprah in this case, and Obama in his weak kneed speech about hearing car door locks close, yada yada, contribute more to the real racists agenda than they do anything to resolve the problem…because their problem is imaginary and the real problem is left un-addressed. Acting out about racism does create publicity and make$ some huck$ter$ a ton of money.

The question no one is asking; how do we know this story of “racism” against Oprah is even true? It wouldn’t be the first time someone well known, like Oprah, made up a story about racism. Hell, just look at the members of the CBC. Their meetings are basically to decide who’s gonna claim someone acted racism against one of them.

The left was apoplectic over the price of Ann Romney’s blouse. Oprah tries to buy a $38,000.00 hand bag and she gets the Medal of Freedom.

And has no one noticed Oprah’s now supporting the ’60’s-’70’s afro blowout hair do? What’s up with that? Symbiosis with Obama’s policy of racial strife?

If Oprah goes away tomorrow, or never existed in the first place, the nation would have never noticed. The only thing the Hollyweird types contribute to is their bank accounts thanks to the stupid people.

ZurichMike’s comments about store clerks reacting to the way a customer presents (particularly females) is spot-on. It’s more pronounced in Europe, but it happens in the US, as well.

I know how to dress when I want to get service in the US, and when I want to let the clerks leave me alone. It works, all the time. In. The. US.

Anyone who thinks I am kidding can go to Nieman’s, Macy’s and Sak’s, and look at what’s riding the escalators. There is a dress code for shopping, even in the least-expensive of the expensive stores.

Oprah seems to suffer from a very common misimpression on the part of blacks: they think it’s all about the skin color, every time. They think that white people, all white people, are welcomed everywhere they go. They imagine that white people don’t have to put up with rude clerks, and they don’t recognize the effort that whites have to make a good impression, too.

The simple truth is that we are all in this together, and we often have to put up with the same kind of cr@p. I wish Oprah knew this. More important, I wish every black doctor and lawyer in the country knew it, along with every black person in a position of ordinary authority.

You’re correct that black people often reveal strange ideas about what life is like for white people — even as they complain that white people “don’t know what it’s like to be black.” And making an effort to dress nicely (doesn’t have to be expensively) usually gets respect in most places.

Weird story about Bergdorf Goodman’s in NYC. A woman who always found it hard to get a clerk’s attention, went in wearing her new sable coat. She was sure (since it’s “better than mink”) … she’d get faster service. But she didn’t.

Probably by giving a customer time to look around, it saves the clerk time? Since the “looker” could take a very long time to make up her mind to make a purchase. BUT if you hesitate even coming over, then the customer is finally glad someone will help her?

It’s really not hard to take money.

And, any “sizing up” has to do with whether someone will waste your time, or buy something?

I’m a Tea-Party-type guy, but let’s cool off a minute. Has the store offered an explanation other than Oprah’s skin color? Not that I am aware of. Saying there has been a misunderstanding is no explanation at all. Unless the store comes up with a more credible explanation, I am willing to assume the clerk concluded Oprah could not afford the purse on no evidence other than race. That’s bad, and we need to concede that in those cases where it seems likely.

In no way does that validate the race hustlers or undercut George Zimmerman, who in my view simply defended himself as any of us would have wanted to do under the circumstances.

There are mountains of other reasons, other than race. Right off the top of my head, right now:

1- The fact that 99.9999% of the world population cannot afford US$38,000.00 for a freaking bag.
2- The way she was dressed, in disregard of dress code or local customs.
3- Her general demeanor.
4- Surprise at the price tags or the absence of them.

I am sure that if I spend one more minute thinking about it I will come up with many other reasons.
The point is, you assume race is the only possible reason because like oprah, you are willing to narrow down your choices.

I have news for you, and for oprah. The rest of the world does not give a rat’s arse about the color of your skin. They look at your behavior. That’s how most people profile.

How would an adult have acted who really wanted to see the bag? Go to the store manager, and identify yourself. Explain that you are a wealthy individual who can afford to buy anything in the store. End of story. More than likely, the manager would himself have shown her the bag. Stores are in business to make money, and you do that by making customers, especially wealthy ones, happy. But no, Oprah has to act like a petulant child and cry racism. The race card is almost worn out these days from overuse.

It speaks poorly of U.S. society that someone like Oprah could make so much money doing so little. As H.L. Mencken famously said, “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

I read a report that the clerk had a chance to speak and claimed Oprah isn’t telling the whole truth… Basically:

“The poor hostess told a very different story. Winfrey was browsing through some purses, and when she inquired about one particular model, the hostess suggested another, almost identical model, saying that while the other one would cost around 35k euros, the alternative one would cost much less and it’s practically the same object, same model and material. Standard polite and helpful salesman behavior.”
Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=143_1376237146#M4FdOFem1w3y1IWu.99

Now, you decide for yourself if you trust the source, but I have seen this a few places online… And my gut is telling me that I believe it. Especially when you know Oprah lied in 2005 about “racism” at the high end Paris shop (where it turned out it was closing time and there was a private party inside), and the racist claim last year by the black gymnast Gabby Douglas, which was helped along by Oprah.